Cart for storing multiple vises?

[Donkey Hotey]

I'm finding myself in a situation that I can't imagine is just my own. I have a variety of workholding between my Haas machining center and manual mill. It amounts to a total of 18 different vises, including Chicks in 4 and 6" sizes, three Kurt 3600s and two standard 6" Kurts.

The problem is where to store the ones that aren't in use? Right now, they are in piles on my work table. That's not good for them and it's not convenient. To change the machine's setup, I have to stack & unstack, while moving each vise to the machine, by hand.

What do others do to keep their vises organized and mobile? What I want is a low-profile cart, maybe 15" wide and 18-24" deep, with shelves about 5" apart in height. It would allow you to store a pair of vises on each shelf, maybe a total of 4-5 shelves high so the cart could be parked under a work table and have a low CG.

I can't be the first person to want something like this. What do other shops do when they change setups in a machine? Yeah, I could make my own but by the time I buy all the material and decent casters, it'll be into the hundreds of dollars and I'll still have to build it and paint it.

Does anybody know of some really slick solution? Some beefy, industrial cart that has shelves?

[dannystooblue]

look at the lista and vidmar tool boxes on wheels, they should be strong enough to do what you want and you can open the drawer to lift them out rather than man handling them out of the shelf area.


Danny

Edit- check out this lista, just needs wheels

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JY103...motiveQ5fTools

[Donkey Hotey]

Thanks for that. I actually considered roll-aways but I didn't want to have to lift the vises out of the drawers. The drawers are also a compromise in size (too much wasted room).

I'm picturing something like this AV rack but more sturdy and industrial casters, but I'm still wondering what others do with their tooling.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by Donkey Hotey ..... but I'm still wondering what others do with their tooling.

Leave em laying around all over the place.

Or leave them hanging around; http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...363#post173363

[Donkey Hotey]

Yes, I remember seeing that setup you made for the vises. Very nice. Too bad it won't hold 16 vises.

I poked around in the McMaster catalog and came up dry. Casters are really expensive. At this point, I'm considering making a custom rack for the top of this Harbor Freight lift table. For $200 I'd get four heavy duty casters and a steel frame. The fact that it can hydraulically lift the vises to machine height, then store under the bench is just an added bonus.

I already own one for moving my rotary/trunion and other heavy loads. It's just that without shelving, the storage is limited to the single surface. Id prefer a dedicated, egg-crate shelving area to hold everything vise-related. The hydraulic portion of this cart, eats up at least one shelf worth of vertical height.

[Geof]

Not only are casters expensive many of them gets flat spots when they stay still with heavy loads. We have several of the lift carts you pictured and use them to transfer heavy equipment from the machines to shelves, but we don't have any fancy system they are tucked here and there. Sometimes the 'there' is behind the machines where you need space to get at the control cabinet. This area can serve as dead storage when it is not needed for getting into the cabinet.

[keebler303]

I've been on an 8020 kick lately at work. Working on about 10 projects with it now. You can get everything kitted cut to size with all the fasteners you need. The local dealer I work with will kit something for me from a napkin sketch and I'll have it around a week later. Its lice because you can always add to it or change it around if you need to since its all modular.

Matt